The world in the eyes of a wanderer

Balla Bologna: Nightlife in Bologna

I LOVE dancing y’all! Love, love, love it! I could dance all day everyday, which is good because I eat a lot of pizza and refuse to go to the gym. A couple of weeks ago 3 of my friends and I decided to do the Balla Bologna 2013 challenge (this isn’t a real thing, we made this up). This seemed like a good idea since we had just finished with our intensive Italian course and we had this awkward break between that and beginning big final papers. Here’s the thing about nightlife in Bologna, there are so many students and a big Erasmus community. On weeknights, Erasmus (the European version of study abroad) hosts a night at a different bar and gives discounts to only Erasmus students. So I suggest you get an Erasmus card. For our challenge we had to go out every night of the week and either dance or find a cool bar to hang out at. We did it, we survived! Here’s photographic proof:

Night 1: Monday = Lord Lister (via Zamboni 56, Bologna). Okay, so this is an example of that whole Erasmus thing I was talking about. Every Monday is Lord Lister night so drinks are discounted for Erasmus students and there is dancing to be done downstairs. The first time I went to Lord Lister it was pretty fun and they had great music, but this time around the DJ was terrible! I mean, literally awful. He was using CDs and stuff kept getting unplugged so the music kept shutting off. I mean, just whip out your floppy disk already!

Night 2: Tuesday = Corto Maltese (via Borgo di San Pietro 9, Bologna). I have NEVER had a good time at Corto Maltese mainly because there is so much traffic, no matter where you stand! I mean, you could be right up on the wall and still be pushed by like 20 people trying to get through in the span of 15 minutes. The DJ is probably pushed by 20 people in 15 minutes!!

Night 3: Wednesday = Irish Pub (via Zamboni 18b, Bologna). So by Wednesday night we were all pretty tired so we decided not to go dancing. To quote my friend Sienna who described the photo quite eloquently “Slowing down. The pain in your faces.” I mean, it was a bit of a struggle. Normally, in terms of Erasmus nights, Kinki’s is the club to go to on Wednesday but it costs 10 euro. This photo was taken in Piazza Verdi which usually FILLED with students, but because people know better than to go out on a Wednesday nobody was around.

Night 4: Thursday = Soda Pops (via Castel Tialto 6, Bologna). This club should always be a last resort. It can either be really fun or just really not fun. That night, it wasn’t super fun. Also, we got into this habit of leaving really late because none of us actually wanted to leave the house.

Night 5: Friday = I have no idea! This was super interesting. We met up with our friend and his Italian friends who took us to this hole in the wall bar. It was super cool because it was all these Italians drinking wine and playing cards. I have no idea what it’s called and you couldn’t find it if you were just walking down the street, but it was a chill night! If you want to go dancing, check out Lab Sedici (via Zamboni 16d, Bologna)

Night 6: Saturday = Qubo (Via Sampieri, 3, Bologna). QUBO NIGHT IS THE BEST NIGHT OF THE WEEK! This is a great club because it has 3 different rooms: American hip-hop/reggaeton room, Euro pop/techno/house/general pop music, and a Latin room. Always a fun time filled with good dancing!

Okay, so now you know where to go, now you need to know what music to expect so you can whip out your best dance moves.

1. Wake Me Up by Avicii. Everybody loves this song!

2. Musica by Fly Project. More commonly referred to as the T-Mobile song by my roommate.

3. Toca Toca by Fly Project. I have yet to hear this one in the club but I like it so much more than Musica!

4. Show Me Love by Steve Angello & Laidback Luke. I LOVE this song. I listen to it on repeat, it’s a guaranteed good time!

5. Animals by Martin Garrix. It took me and my friends forever to find this song. And this is a hard song to sing so asking people if they knew it was super awkward! When we finally found it, my friends and I had an epic dance party in our dorm room, complete with flashlights and a youtube strobe light video. This is about as electronic as it gets!

6. I’m in Love by Ola. Easy to dance to and fun to sing along to. Weird music video, good song!

7. Watch Out for This by Major Lazer. One of my favorite songs to come on in the club! Brownie points to anyone who can find a Jamaican dance hall in Bologna.

8. Be Faithful by Fatman Scoops. This is my ULTIMATE favorite song to dance to! It’s an old one and I forgot about it until I came to Bologna, but you can be sure that every time my friends and I go out we request this song. They don’t always play it, and the Europeans don’t know what to do with themselves when they do, but us Americans know what’s up!

So whether you like to go out to clubs or you have the house to yourself, happy dancing and stay safe y’all.